Two Sides of the Same Coin
by MegMarch1880
Summary: Each Avenger is a unique person. However, they share more in common than even they may realize.
1. Monster's Fear

**A/N-I do not own any of these Marvel characters. My characterization is my own and that I do claim. This idea came to me in how so many of the Avengers are similar in ways that aren't always as obvious. The title of the story is borrowed from the Merlin BBC fandom and I do not own that either. So thus the plot bunny was born of a look at the Avengers and their fears about relationships.**

Bruce Banner

He was scared. He could barely admit it inside of his head but he was scared, terrified actually a snarky voice piped in, which sounded suspiciously like Tony Stark. What he was scared of wasn't that big or necessarily that scary to look at... But Bruce still couldn't help but want to hide and protect himself from the pain to come. He hadn't been that great at relationships when he'd been merely Bruce Banner though his exes had sworn if he could keep those mood swings under control... Now that his mood swings were a lot more extreme, he doubts many women would be interested after they met the other guy. Of course, that was assuming they survived meeting him, he sighed.

When he'd been little, he was the guy that the girls pleaded to play house with them on the playground. Now, when they found out who he was most wanted to run screaming. The few that remained had a million questions about how he'd done this to himself. He enjoyed the scientific discussion but there was more to life than science, despite some's claim to the contrary.

He had tried to convince himself that he wasn't scared, he was just busy and being an Avenger just took up to much of his time. Then his brain so helpfully pointed out Tony and Pepper and Thor and Jane. Steve went and visited Peggy when he could. Clint had a wife and a family. When he realized that the one Avenger who didn't have someone they spent time with was the Black Widow...That was a frightening realization. He also as a result didn't have much ground to stand on with being too busy.

So he was back to being scared, scared of a relationship. Scared of letting someone in and then they run away screaming about the monster he truly is. Bruce had no illusions about himself, he was a monster. He was always angry and every psychology book he'd read to help keep the other guy under control insisted that that much anger couldn't be healthy in a relationship. He knew how easily a woman or really anyone for that matter could be hurt or killed if they got to in his face. He had a good hold of the other guy but he wasn't perfect. Unfortunately, his flaw could destroy Harlem while a normal guy's temper driven fist could at most hurt a wall. Yes, Bruce knew what he was, a monster. And he wasn't going to let anyone try to lie and say otherwise.

Thor

He knew from the looks that Jane and Darcy exchanged if nothing else that in this world he was considered naive. In fact, people seemed to think his responses somewhat simplistic and naive. He was not the greatest scholar of the Nine Realms but he was not as naive as people seemed to think. He didn't respond the way that most people in this world did but that didn't mean there was anything wrong with him. This world was so much more fragile than his own in both terms of physical endurance and the emotional endurance of its people.

It made him worry at times when he thought about it. Sure, he was a god from another realm but that didn't mean that Jane would want to be with him forever. In fact, he almost expected that at some point the realization of what he was would finally hit her. Then she would go running in the opposite direction screaming all the while. Or even worse realizing what he was truly and staying but only because of pity or to try to figure out the differences between him and a normal man.

Thor was a warrior. He had seen things that no one should have seen. After the change in Loki, his trust in those close to him was lessened. He still loved them, that never paused for a second. But Thor knew that he was a lot more cautious than he had been a few centuries ago.

His mind kept pointing out other potential problems that lay ahead. More worries for him to consider. More weight for him to bear. There always seemed to be more worries that he couldn't fight, ones that he couldn't swing his hammer at. The world wasn't as simple as it had been when he was younger when his father seemed invincible or when he had thought that there was nothing he couldn't fight. Now he knew that not everything could be fought and some battles might be lost and that frightened him most of all.


	2. Atlas Shrugged

**A/N: I do not own Steve Rogers or Tony Stark or any of the Marvel Universe. These are my interpretation of their characters based off of the movies that I have seen of them.**

Steve Rogers

He was the super soldier. He was supposed to be the perfect man. How was he supposed to live up to that expectation? He was a man displaced in time and was supposed to be almost out of time. Instead, he awoke from war to a new war. Technology and society had changed yet the battles seemed the same. Sure the arsenal had changed but people still seemed to be fighting over the same thing. Power, position, and what is the right way to rule the world.

Yet people on the street didn't seem to see that. They saw the super soldier. They saw Captain America who had lost his Peggy Carter. If it wasn't so frustrating it'd almost make him laugh on how so many people seemed to think that Peggy had been some weak or helpless woman. She was a strong woman who had been a real helpmate in the war. People on the street almost seemed to be waiting for him to pick the next Peggy Carter. Did they not realize that Peggy Carter was no sidekick? That he felt like that he in a way had been her sidekick. Peggy couldn't be replaced, that he knew for certain. Loving her was not something that went away quickly if it would ever go away.

He was the perfect one. The one who was supposed to create the perfect family for a perfect world if the comments were anything to go by. He couldn't hold that title and responsibility up even with the shield that Stark had created for him. Captain America might have done it if he was actually real. But he wasn't that was just a mask and a costume.

Steve Rogers had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He should have already collapsed, but that stubborn will to live had kicked in again. Bucky and Peggy would call it stupidity. But they weren't here right now. He was just some kid from Brooklyn without his best friend or his girl with a whole world looking to him for answers. But his shoulders were trembling and before you know it, Atlas will shrug.

Tony Stark

If Tony was to actually really think and talk with Steve, Tony would soon make the conscious connection that he and Steve were actually pretty similar. This was part of the reason that they had difficulty getting along. Though the fact that Tony's father, Howard's ignoring of Tony to find Steve had already set up Captain America and Iron Man's friendship for failure. But Tony had refused to admit even to himself that he tried to take on characteristics of Captain America, cause after all if Dad cared about him so much, clearly he'd love Tony even more if he was like Captain America.

Tony, if Tony was assessing himself was messed up. He'd had a difficult childhood with a difficult father and a mother who tried but never enough. Then his parents had died and he had taken over Stark Industries. Then the betrayal happened and he discovered what his weapons were actually doing instead of saving US troops. That was probably why he wasn't considered for the Avengers Initiative which had stung even if he was a self-confessed narcissist who didn't "play well with others." But he had ended up having to help instead and even save New York from a missile. Then there was more fighting and saving the world and near death experiences. Any psychologist or social worker worth their salt would be keeping him in counseling for a long time if they ever assessed him. Of that Tony had little doubt. But he had held himself together...sort of through work and alcohol and Pepper. But then Ultron happened and work didn't feel as safe of a hiding place anymore but what else could he do to protect his friends? Or even himself? Steve, Barnes, and Banner might be immortal alongside Thor who was a Norse god. But Natasha, Clint and him would age out of the Avengers eventually. Had Steve ever thought that far ahead? Had Steve thought about the fact that they didn't know whether Barnes and he would age like normal or just collapse one day dead? That Bruce had no idea how long the Hulk would live and had no knowledge of what would happen to his Dr. Jekyl form in the process. Something had to be done and Ultron had seemed like the answer but that hadn't worked. They had gotten Vision and Wanda though so that was good.

Then Pepper was gone. She wanted him to stop. And he wanted to stop so desperately. But didn't she realize that he didn't know how to stop? He'd been working since he was little. Trying to impress Dad. Trying to impress Fury and Dad's memory by trying to save the world make it better. He didn't know how to stop drinking, how to not save the world.

So yeah, he might not have always made the right decisions. But did they not remember that while he might be a genius, he was still only a mortal man? An older messed up man. Steve might be the oldest chronologically. But Tony actually felt the most years. So yeah, with the only constant that hadn't fully betrayed him yet alcohol.(And yes, he knew that one would too.) With that being the only, yeah, he felt that some guidelines might be good. Because Pepper his moral compass was gone. And while the press might call Steve the righteous man, Tony knew enough to know that Steve wasn't comfortable with that role. So yeah, guidelines.

Sure he may have overreacted at times. But to find out that even the "righteous man" would lie to him. That he would betray the small friendship that he thought they had? That even worse his father had spent years searching for a man who sided with Howard's killer rather than with Howard and by extension his son. The son whose childhood had been ruined for searches for this man. The man whose childhood had been spent fighting for his father's attention to a dead man(Steve) who come to find out would rather focus on the man who had killed Howard. Yeah, that made him mad.

And Atlas finally shrugged and he may have snapped a little. He'd lost almost everything he thought he could of and even one he hadn't thought to worry about with (Rhodey). So Atlas shrugged and Tony didn't know if he'd ever be able to pick up the world again. How was he supposed to save the world if he couldn't even save himself or his relationship?

Yeah, if Tony actually let his brain bring this to his attention, it might help him. Instead, though, his brain just gets bombarded with accusations of guilt and more proof of his mess ups. So Atlas shrugged, and what remained the question in Tony's mind was who was going to catch the world?


	3. Broken Confessions

**A/N: As previously stated I do not own these Marvel characters. These are my interpretations of these characters based off of cannon. Sorry that I took a bit longer to update! Work keeps me exhuasted and busy along with a summer class. Natasha and Clint's similarities are the most easily seen and thus it was harder for me to write their unseen similarities.**

Natasha Romanov

Sure there was red in her ledger that she wanted to wipe out. And yes if she thought about it the number of people who had a bounty on her head that might should disturb her. What did disturb her though was after she was no longer able to be the Black Widow. Now part of that was for the reasons above, after all, a slow spider is quickly a dead one.

But what could she do with her life after that? Most of the others would be able to continue on long after she had aged out of being able to be an Avenger. Clint's comment of finding a romantic interest or a friend outside of superheroes and spies was purely a fantasy. The ability to find someone who was able to handle her in her Black Widow charm was able to keep up with her, she liked, that liked her, and didn't mind her job was a tall list of characteristics. Add to the fact someone who could handle her past and she had some supreme doubts that many "normal" people would be good with her after hearing almost anything about her past. Her work with SHIELD might go over acceptable with a "normal" person but she doubted even Clint had actually handled well the little bit that she had revealed about the Red Room.

The Baby Spider training had been hard and traumatizing. And it had only gotten worse as she had gotten older, she was thoroughly convinced that most people would be extremely disturbed and that didn't even cover her missions. She remembered a new handler from the Red Room vomiting after hearing her report after a mission. The handler had never reacted that badly again. But she had always edited a bit after that and had plainly seen that the handler had been very disturbed by what she was reporting.

So if someone who had been trained to deal with such things was unable to handle the almost unvarnished truth from her. She had her doubts that anyone else could either. After they heard everything she knew what most people even those who claimed to love her would say and the word, monster would probably be the most kind.

She was broken. Irreparable and very completely broken. Not in a way that she couldn't function. In fact, she functioned very well as the Black Widow or even Aunt Nat. But masks, facades, and faces were what she had been trained in since birth. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken all of her masks off. She wasn't even sure that she still could.

Clint Barton

He didn't know. He didn't know how he and his wife's marriage was still going strong. He didn't know how someone would react to Nat's history. He didn't know how everyone had forgotten the weight they had given Tony and had never removed. That he didn't feel like that even now he was part of the team. He didn't know how to deal with being frozen and waking up 70 years later and all the problems that came with that. He didn't know how to deal with being from another planet and how to handle the loss of trust in your own judgment. He didn't know how to stop feeling like a monster.

He also didn't know how he had turned into the therapist/confessor of the group. Now he knew that neither Bruce nor Tony were that type of doctors. And he did perhaps agree with Tony's point that he shouldn't counsel anyone anyways. But Thor? Steve? How had he ended up their confessor? He wished he could say that for Nat but other than one time telling him just a hint of her past so that he would stop joking that after retired to find a spider for the Black Widow to keep. The little she had told him had been enough to know not to make that joke again.

But he didn't know how to handle any of this. He still wasn't sure how he was actually still alive. He was a mortal man fighting all sorts of monsters with a bow. A very technologically hyped up bow but still a bow, like in medieval times. He was married to a wonderful woman with beautiful kids and he wasn't entirely sure why they hadn't been destroyed or disappeared or left yet. He didn't know how to live a normal life.

Yet everyone else seemed to think everything was altogether in his head. That he had everything all figured out. His past had broken him not like Nat's had. But he had his own scars and ghosts too. He just kept moving forward shooting whatever monster that came his way. He just wished that people stopped expecting him to have the answers because he just didn't know. And that scared him.


End file.
